climate change

On the potential for oilsands to add 200ppm of CO2 to the atmosphere

by

Over the last few days, posts by Bill McKibben in the Guardian and by NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen on his own website at Columbia have again brought forward the statistic that, “the tar sands are estimated to contain at least 400 GtC (equivalent to about 200 ppm CO2).”  That’s true but, in the context of building the Keystone XL pipeline, the statistic is laughably out of context.

Read more

Alberta needs to do more than tell Ottawa, “hands off the golden goose!”

by

This article, by Jason Fekete and Darcy Henton, discusses the Alberta Government’s growing anxiety with respect to the coming Federal GHG regulations for the oil and gas sector. Premier Stelmach and the Alberta Government may be late to the game, but they have moved quickly in the past to head off federal action with regulatory changes in the province.

As I wrote during the election, the Conservatives have committed to a regulatory model, which could be similar to the EPA approach in the US, although details for Canadian regulations have yet to be released.  If you want to know what source performance standards will look like in the oil and gas sector in the US, look here.

What should concern Alberta is the fact that regulatory approaches generally look at each facility and ask what that facility can afford to pay. Alberta has some of the highest value uses of carbon emissions in the country – you don’t have to look far to see a story about how profitable the big oil companies are today. Under a regulatory approach, oil and gas facilities can afford to pay a great deal more than, for example, steel mills in Eastern Canada. I wrote then, and I still believe it to be the case now, that we should not be too quick to assume that the oil sands will be the first to get special treatment.

Read more

My latest Economy Lab Post: Emissions: Peter Kent’s 178 millon-ton challenge

by

It may be his most important task, and setting Canada’s GHG policy course for the next four years will not be an easy one for Environment Minister Peter Kent. By his own admission, meeting Canada’s GHG goals will be a daunting challenge and will require stringent regulations on oil and gas, electricity generation, transportation, and … Read more

Tory platform’s dirty secret – my latest Economy Lab post

by

There’s a hole in the Conservative platform…a hole so big, you could fit Canada’s oil and gas sector or every single one of our fossil-fuel power plants into it. The hole is projected to get bigger, and will be large enough to fit every single car, truck, SUV, train, bus, and ATV in Canada into … Read more

Liberals’ significant climate plan cloaked in silence

by

My second Globe and Mail Economy Lab post on the new Liberal Platform is available here.  After this piece was posted, Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell posted a response to some of the questions I raised here. Rick Szostak posted another response detailing how revenues from the auction of permits would remain in Alberta here.

So, a guy walks into a gas station…

by

So, a guy walks into a gas station after filling his Prius with 40 liters of fuel and the person behind the till says, “That’ll be $40, sir. Next time, you might want to save yourself the trip in and pay at the pump.”  The man hands over $51 and says, “I would love to, but the gas pump won’t collect my carbon tax payment.  You see, we are in a climate crisis, and by adding a $100/ton carbon price to my gasoline purchase, I am saving the world. No more climate refugees, fewer earthquakes, fewer severe hurricanes. So please, just add the $11 to your tax remittance to Ottawa.  Have a nice day.”

Read more